May 14, 2013
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Nine Elephants Review (Docklands)
I didn’t realize that the same night my friends- Miss J and Miss L and I were going to catch up was the same night that the football was going to be on. Seriously Monday night football? It made the Docklands area chaotic with all the crazy football supporters who braved the cold wind to support their teams at Etihad stadium (on a school night too! UMMM-MAHHH)
We had chosen to try the Thai restaurant apparently rated #1 in Docklands by the people of Urbanspoon (the restaurant tells you this with a sign on their door). One of the ladies happens to live in Docklands is currently “car-less” so we thought it we kept it local(or walking distance) then it made life easy however with the weather change occurring on Monday- we ended up picking her up to drive the 2-3kms from her place anyway.
Nine Elephants (67 Village St Docklands) is not hard to locate but you’ll be hardpressed to find any FREE parking in the concrete jungle that is Docklands especially on a footy night. We ended up finding a place that charged us $8.00 for the entire night.
The Food:
Miss L and I decided to share our meals as Miss J is a vegetarian who’s also gluten intolerant- the running joke is that eventually she’ll realize that she’s allergic to everything except meat and would have to turn to the “dark side”…
Anyway, so we ordered the “Salt and Spicy Soft Shell Crab”- trying saying that quick 10 times. I really enjoyed the dish as it was flavoured very nicely and had the right amount of salt and spice where it wasn’t too spicy or overly salty. It was a good pick.
Miss J ordered the “Tao Hoo Sard Sai”-deep fried vegetables stuffed with homemade peanut sauce. Oddly enough on the menu they have put a GF(for gluten free) but not Vegtarian- Let’s hope that the peanut sauce doesn’t have some meat related thing in it because I would LOL at Miss J. But nonetheless this was very nice dish as well. I really liked the peanut sauce that came with the tofu- and surprisingly the tofu wasn’t too dry or soggy. This was also the last dish that I tried of Miss J’s. Her next dish (which I dont have a photo of was apparently very nicely spiced- and she was drinking loads of water and eating rice to get the “burning tang out of her mouth..poor thing)
For our mains we opted for the following:
Mooh Grob Pad Prik Khing- crispy pork stir fried in red curry paste with green beans, kaffir lime leaves and long red chilli. This was surprisingly terrible. The pork was crispy but also very dry… it was so bad that it ruined the entire dish and I couldn’t taste the curry flavour in the dish
Gang Massaman Neua- beef slowly cooked in coconut cream , sweet potato, onions, cashew nuts and peanuts. The better dish between the two. The beef was succelent and the curry was just amazing. We really liked this dish out of the two.
Our complaint:
I was extremely disappointed when our coconut rice came out. This was extremely dry and if it wasn’t for the Massaman we wouldn’t have been able to eat it. I don’t understand how a Thai place can get coconut rice, or rice in general so wrong. Seriously a place that’s meant to be the “best” in Docklands really FAILED on such a basic dish.
The other thing was- as this place was an extremely small place, everytime the doors were opened we almost froze. I know there’s not much that can be done about this but it’s probably not recommended to go on a windy wintry night because it’s very uncomfortable to go through as you eat and freeze.
What we liked:
The service was prompt and I loved the fact that the waiters kept filling our cups with water. Everytime I turned around to pick up my glass it was always full of water- sometimes i didn’t notice them filling up my glass (that’s ninja style service) as i was in deep coversations with my friend.
Would we come back?
In comparison to the many Thai restaurants that I have been to in the past- this just sits somewhere as “okay” but not fantastic. But as the Docklands area is very limiting – and I assume it’s nearest competitor in the same area doing the same thing- this place probably does it better. But if you compare it to what else is available around town than this place just makes the cut of being okay. If it weren’t for the fact that one of my friends living in Docklands I wouldn’t be going out of my way for the Thai food- however if I was a local- I’d be happy.
So yes, as long as one of my friends remains car-less and we have to dine in Docklands, we’ll be coming back again to try other things.
